Our GPS Track...This is how Winning is DONE!

So after a hiatus from sailing, we went back out on the water.  It had been a while since we last raced Speedy.  We had some new crew on the boat, and some seasoned.  Bryan is back from Kuwait and he stepped on to race.  This was Lisa’s first time on Speedy, so she was learning how everything worked.

So Saturday night, we (JoJo, Bryan, and I) were out a bit late at the Dubliner.  We did win some cool ass hats though from the Jameson Girls.  WoooHooooo…..I love me some free Shwag!  We did a whole “Team Hat” thing…the girls wore the newly acquired Jameson hats, while Bryan and I took on the military hats he brought back from Kuwait.  We looked good.  But how were we going to sail?

We loaded up Speedy and headed north to play with the Bayview kids.  Did I mention that there was some talk between my crew and Swale’s?  Well…there was a wager made, and there was a round of beers at stake.

The race started and Swale had about a 10 minute head start…we were going to have to work hard to get that boat back in our sights.  The hangover was not helping.  The wind was neither.  We broke off the fleet and headed to the west side of the lake looking to catch a wind-line. We had to get the binoculars out to see Swale…that’s how far ahead of us they were.   There was some real light southern wind.  At times, we were having a dance Party on the deck.  I might have even Moooooned Swale….I can’t say for sure!

They were ahead.  We were trying hard to catch them and the wind-line we thought we saw on the west shore.  Luckily for us, we got a hold of the wind line and headed towards the mark.  And we were going FAST!  By the time we got to the mark, we could see the whole fleet in out proverbial rear view mirror.  we had given every boat but one time….and now we were up front.  Hell YA!  We still have it.  We can rock out a boat race even hung over.

We round the mark.  We hoist the spinnaker.  We now have a spinnaker in the water.  All of a sudden the wind has DIED!  The fleet is slowly making up ground.  We can almost make out faces on Swale.  We take down the chute…we put up the Ginny.  What do you know, we are moving again.  That was a 180 degree wind shift right at the mark.  WOW.  So we are headed toward the finish when the wind shifts again.  It forces us to change sails once again,  Spinnaker is back up and now we are on a tight reach…but we are hauling ass.

We finish.  In First.  Time to collect our winnings, but first we take the boat back to RCYC and put her up.  Then we head to Flying Saucer.  I love nothing more than a nice cold FREE Guinness…Good Try Swale, Better Luck Next Time.

We left the boat at RCYC when the race got canceled. So today we had to take it back to Chandler’s for the race. As soon as I got the motor up and running, Peter found some wind and we started hauling down. Just my luck.

The Start- I hit the start mark. Had to go around and try that again. Giranimo proceeded to do the same thing. By the time we got an offical start, we were so far behind. Popped the chute and started heading towards the first mark. I hate that mark… I am not sure why, but I am just not a big fan of it. We rounded and stalled the boat. I mean we were not going anywhere…we just sat there.

I am having issues reaching on that boat in light wind. I think maybe the sails are trimmed in too tight. Dwight tried to rig up the VMG spin, but it was a short leg and by the time it was done, we were too close to the second mark. I looked behind us…there was not a single boat back there. Somehow we were in dead last again. Son of a BITCH!

Rounded the mark, tightned up the boat and all of a sudden we started to speed up to the third mark. We were headed right for it, didn’t even have to tack one time. And we were fast, we started passing boats. Really!

Came to the third mark and saw Swale going down to the finish. They had us by at least 10 or 20 boat lengths. Barking Fish was right there too…we setup the VMG spinnaker and rounded the mark. I guess we picked the right sail. We started to haul ass! Passed a couple of boats and were trying to take over MasCaliente when we were foiled. They kept pushing us up and I started heading lower. While we were messing around here, Giranimo came in from behind. and tried to go above us. Now I had two boats trying to take our wind. SOB.

We fought Giranimo off and were actually taking over MasCaliente, when I lost all concentration. Out of nowhere, Giranimo sped by us and took all our wind….there we were barley moving. All because I stopped paying attention for a minute. ROOKIE MISTAKE!!!

Well that was it, we lost a spot to Giranimo, another to Mas Caliente, and another to Barking Fish. I AM SO PISSED AT MYSELF.

The crew was perfect tonight. Peter and Virginia kicked ass. Spencer and Dwight had that boat moving. The only thing that slowed us down was me. HATE THAT!

Still one of the most enjoyable days of racing/sailing. The battles were awesome. We did beat Swale, but let Barking Fish by. I was all by myself today. I made my mistakes and let’s hope I learned form them.

As an exercise we did rig up the boat and headed out.  We get out there, and there is a breeze.  We get to the start and Woody is calling tactics.  He was right on, we get a great start and squeeze past Giranimo.  We get on a port tack and head towards Terry Point…I am really starting to dig racing in light wind.  There is so much more finesse to handling the helm.  Careful and purposeful movements, the weight shifts on the boat are immediately recognized.

We were headed a little too much toward the middle of the lake.  I was getting worried that we were just separating too much from the rest of the fleet.  Woody made me keep my course.  That was our saving grace.  The Mark was no where near terry point, rather it was closer to the power plant.  We were headed right for it.  We even had some room to head down and get some speed.

About 300 yards to the mark; Woody, who has only known me for a couple of months, made the most  insightful comment ever.  I guess he could either see or feel that I was getting anxious and told me to chill out.  He further commented that we were on track for the first 2/3 of the race and that I need to keep from losing my concentration now.  I was still anxious.  I just wanted to do something.  We had been on the same tack for almost an hour now.

We approached the mark and were about to round it when we noticed that S-Cape and Progh’s Shooting Star were headed toward the damn.  The two Melges rounded the mark and we didn’t think we could catch them by following them.  We stayed on our tack for another couple hundred yards and tacked on the same line as S-Cape and Shooting Star. That was obviously the right decision.  We beat Barking Fish and Devil Dog in.

We got a 7th, not too bad.  I will take that any day competing against these sailors on light wind.

There are some pictures coming soon….